


Meeting the Parents (when the parents are strange)

by Tentaculiferous



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Class Differences, Class Issues, Gen, Introspection, One Shot, Pre-Goth Sam, The youth being corrupted (or so Pamela would say)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:56:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29522586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tentaculiferous/pseuds/Tentaculiferous
Summary: Sam meets the Fentons for the first time, and things change forever.The Fentons were nuts. With their crazy inventions, loud behavior, wild way of dressing (bright neon-colored hazmat suits may not have been her style exactly, but man, talk about nonconformist!) and obsession with ghosts, they were weird in every way. Sam loved it. She felt safer and more relaxed at Fenton Works than her own home. Ghosts weren't quite her thing, but it was less what Danny's parents centered their world on and more about how they did it. They'd dedicated their whole life to satisfying their own interests, no matter how much the world scoffed and ridiculed them. Sam wanted to be just like them.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 30





	Meeting the Parents (when the parents are strange)

Sam had known Danny for several years before her parents gave her their (extremely reluctant) permission to go over to his house.  
  
"But Mom, we have a science project we have to work on!" she'd whined.  
  
"Sammy dear, why don't you just have him come over here? Our place is bigger, there will be more room for you kids to work." her mother said, patting absently at a few stray blond hairs that had escaped Sam's pink floral headband.  
  
Sam definitely didn't want that. She'd had a few girls over from her dance classes once, and they'd acted like they were at a movie star's house, oohing and aahing over little things Sam took for granted. Didn't they have a bowling alley at home? No? But where did they bowl then?  
  
Even worse, they'd spread the word to the rest of class: Sam Manson was _rich_. Her popularity among the other girls exploded, many crowding her constantly to curry favor. She'd taken it as genuine at first, she hadn't made the connection. But after a few shopping trips with "friends" where they'd looked at her expectantly when the cashier rattled off their total, and being invited out for lunches where she was left with the bill every time, she'd started to understand.  
  
They didn't like her. They liked her function as a limitless ATM for them. The next week, she'd asked her mother to withdraw her from ballet. Pamela hadn't wanted her to drop —"You need regular exercise dear. And culture." but Sam had wheedled her into it, trading ballet for piano lessons and agreeing to sit in with her mother during her weekly yoga sessions.  
  
Sam had learned her lesson and there was no way she was letting it get out at school that her family was loaded. She thought hard, trying to come up with a reason she had to go over to the Fentons that her mother would approve of.  
  
"But Danny's parents are scientists. he said they have a _lab_ in their house. We don't have a lab, do we Mom?" Sam asked, putting on an innocent expression.  
  
"No, we don't." Pamela admitted. Then she muttered, "But maybe we should get one..."  
  
"What was that?" Sam asked.  
  
Pamela sighed. "Okay Sammy, you can work on this project at Danny's house, this time. But I want you to call and check in _every hour_ , alright?"  
  
"Yes!" Sam agreed, pumping her fist in triumph.  
  
She'd been so relieved she didn't even balk at her mother's over-protectiveness. It didn't occur to her that it was an unusual request. Sam had been over to Tucker's house before, and even Paulina and Valerie's, and never had to check in. It was Danny's house that was the exception. Sam didn't get what the big deal was then. She had never met Jack and Maddie Fenton.  
  
That was about to change, and Sam's worldview was about to be flipped upside down.  
  
When the day finally came and the family chauffeur dropped her off discreetly at the end of the block, the big wacky Fenton Works building loomed over everything, with its signs spilling neon light and the bizarre twisted shape on top that looked like a spaceship covered in satellite dishes and sensor scopes. It didn't scare her though. Instead, she felt awed, looking at this weird anomaly clashing wildly with the unremarkable, neat and proper brick buildings of the neighborhood.  
  
She felt like she was being shown a key to a cage she hadn't even known she was living in. Inside was even better.  
  
The Fentons were nuts. With their crazy inventions, loud behavior, wild way of dressing (bright neon-colored hazmat suits may not have been her style exactly, but man, talk about nonconformist!) and obsession with ghosts, they were weird in every way. Sam loved it. She felt safer and more relaxed at Fenton Works than her own home. Ghosts weren't quite her thing, but it was less what Danny's parents centered their world on and more about how they did it. They'd dedicated their whole life to satisfying their own interests, no matter how much the world scoffed and ridiculed them. Sam wanted to be just like them.  
  
Not like, in a wear-a-bright-orange-jumpsuit and ramble endlessly about ghosts way. But wearing what she wanted, not what her mother cooed at and said she'd look "adorable" in. And maybe she dreamed of living in a fairytale home like a lot of girls her age, but hers was less the Prince's Castle, and more the wicked witch's lair.  
  
She'd been going over to Danny's for a few weeks when she made up her mind. Sam asked the driver to stop at the pharmacy on the way home. She grabbed a box of pure black hair dye and filled a bag with boxes of Rit fabric dye, the better to take care of all the "adorable" pastel clothes polluting her room at home. Speaking of which, her bedroom would have to be made over. Well, her mother had been pressuring her that it needed an update to stay "current"...Sam smiled at the thought.  
  
There was sure to be an argument when she got home. But it was so worth it. Sam was never looking back.

**Author's Note:**

> Any feedback is appreciated ^^


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